Freedom is coming tomorrow!
January 23, 2018 7:29 AM Subscribe
Rampolo Hugh Masekela, the anti-apartheid activist, trumpet player, and father of South African Jazz, has died in Johannesburg.
NPR obituary. BBC Obituary. Tributes.
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Hugh Masekela reminisces on musical motivations, Mandela.
Hugh Masekela was featured in the documentary Amandla! A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony which focused on the music of the South African Anti-Apartheid Movement, alongside his ex-wife Miriam Makeba.
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Hugh Masekela co-wrote the musical Sarafina! with Mbongeni Ngema. The musical, based on the June 16 1976 Soweto Children's Uprising, was performed entirely by South African students and actors.
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Some of my favorites. Coal Train (Stimela). Strawberries. Mama. Grazing in the Grass. Don't Go Lose It Baby. Change. The Lord's Prayer. Kilimanjaro. Freedom is Coming Tomorrow
NPR obituary. BBC Obituary. Tributes.
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Hugh Masekela reminisces on musical motivations, Mandela.
MARTIN: Masekela's impact is really hard to describe in few words. He's released some 40 albums - appeared on too many to count. He's appeared with artists as wide-ranging as Herb Alpert, The Birds, Paul Simon, Fela Kuti and the late, great Miriam Makeba, to whom he was once married. Now in his 70s, Masekela is still touring, which is how we caught up with him last spring when he stopped by our studios in Washington, D.C. And I started by asking him how he fell in love with music.---
HUGH MASEKELA: I got possessed by music as an infant. So by the time I started playing the trumpet, I was already a bona fide musician. And I was playing classical music as well as other things. And then, I had a beautiful high tenor voice, you know, like those British boys in the cathedral. (Singing) Ahhhh. Yeah.
Hugh Masekela was featured in the documentary Amandla! A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony which focused on the music of the South African Anti-Apartheid Movement, alongside his ex-wife Miriam Makeba.
---
Hugh Masekela co-wrote the musical Sarafina! with Mbongeni Ngema. The musical, based on the June 16 1976 Soweto Children's Uprising, was performed entirely by South African students and actors.
---
Some of my favorites. Coal Train (Stimela). Strawberries. Mama. Grazing in the Grass. Don't Go Lose It Baby. Change. The Lord's Prayer. Kilimanjaro. Freedom is Coming Tomorrow
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posted by El Brendano at 8:01 AM on January 23, 2018
posted by El Brendano at 8:01 AM on January 23, 2018
The Byrds' Rock and Roll Star, featuring Hugh Masekela.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 8:50 AM on January 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 8:50 AM on January 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
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posted by Recliner of Rage at 9:27 AM on January 23, 2018
posted by Recliner of Rage at 9:27 AM on January 23, 2018
It may pale in significance next to the rest of his life and career, but Grazin' in the Grass is such a perfect happy place. I hope he's there now.
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posted by whuppy at 9:54 AM on January 23, 2018
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posted by whuppy at 9:54 AM on January 23, 2018
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posted by elsietheeel at 9:57 AM on January 23, 2018
posted by elsietheeel at 9:57 AM on January 23, 2018
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posted by UhOhChongo! at 12:28 PM on January 23, 2018
posted by UhOhChongo! at 12:28 PM on January 23, 2018
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posted by Winnie the Proust at 12:54 PM on January 23, 2018
posted by Winnie the Proust at 12:54 PM on January 23, 2018
Hedzoleh Sounds with Hugh on the trumpet is just sublime.
posted by anthill at 1:25 PM on January 23, 2018
posted by anthill at 1:25 PM on January 23, 2018
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posted by Lesser Spotted Potoroo at 1:37 PM on January 23, 2018
posted by Lesser Spotted Potoroo at 1:37 PM on January 23, 2018
kwela, kwela, hugh
i'm old enough to remember hugh masekela in the 60s, but this song with mafikizolo is my favorite moment of his
posted by pyramid termite at 3:43 PM on January 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
i'm old enough to remember hugh masekela in the 60s, but this song with mafikizolo is my favorite moment of his
posted by pyramid termite at 3:43 PM on January 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
This is the first ever thing I heard of Hugh Masekela, so naturally this is what I thought of all day today.
posted by gc at 8:11 PM on January 23, 2018
posted by gc at 8:11 PM on January 23, 2018
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A great loss. I felt fortunate in February 2012 to be able to take my son to see Masekela in concert, more than 40 years after the end of the 60s when he was just about my favorite musician, and I saw him a number of times in small nightclubs in the Northeast.
I hadn't thought about this, but Masekela probably was the first musician from outside the U.S. who I listened to at length, who helped me see, starting way back then, that an entire world of music waited out there for me to discover. Certainly Hugh and few others, like his then wife Miriam Makeba and Bob Marley, in addition to being musical giants, have had such a political impact on their homeland. What strength and pride Masekela and his South African bandmates in the Jazz Epistles must have had as the first black band to record an album in a land ruled by apartheid, where their music, in fact, was not allowed to be performed, or played on the radio.
My favorite Masekela album from the old days – the one before the one with Grazing in the Grass made him a star – was recorded live in Hollywood. In those days he did a lot of pop song covers, including this sensitive A Whiter Shade of Pale and a dynamic Up, Up & Away.
posted by LeLiLo at 8:36 PM on January 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
A great loss. I felt fortunate in February 2012 to be able to take my son to see Masekela in concert, more than 40 years after the end of the 60s when he was just about my favorite musician, and I saw him a number of times in small nightclubs in the Northeast.
I hadn't thought about this, but Masekela probably was the first musician from outside the U.S. who I listened to at length, who helped me see, starting way back then, that an entire world of music waited out there for me to discover. Certainly Hugh and few others, like his then wife Miriam Makeba and Bob Marley, in addition to being musical giants, have had such a political impact on their homeland. What strength and pride Masekela and his South African bandmates in the Jazz Epistles must have had as the first black band to record an album in a land ruled by apartheid, where their music, in fact, was not allowed to be performed, or played on the radio.
My favorite Masekela album from the old days – the one before the one with Grazing in the Grass made him a star – was recorded live in Hollywood. In those days he did a lot of pop song covers, including this sensitive A Whiter Shade of Pale and a dynamic Up, Up & Away.
posted by LeLiLo at 8:36 PM on January 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
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posted by Malingering Hector at 9:25 AM on January 24, 2018
posted by Malingering Hector at 9:25 AM on January 24, 2018
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